The performance of relief pitchers can vary from season to season. Over the years, I’ve watched Jeurys Familia, Armando Benitez and Randy Myers take the long stroll from the bullpen. Based on both their and the franchise's past history, the Met on the mound is never guaranteed to be the Met you recently saw make that same stroll.
Myers was a lefthanded flame thrower whose best seasons took place after leaving Queens. I’m not discounting his 26 saves in 1988 to help earn the NL East Division title, but not all of those were clean. Benitez has a similar assent after leaving; shining brightest after leaving Baltimore. He joined the Mets in 1999 and finished 42 games for the first of two playoff teams under Bobby Valentine. The team finished behind the Atlanta Braves both times and anyone from that time period probably has their favorite Benitez Blown Save memory to cry about during The Rain Song.
I don’t have one, mostly because my memories around 2000 involve graduating college, moving cross-country and watching Benitez walk five and give up five runs in eight appearances during a postseason I watched from a friend's sofa somewhere on the West Coast. When I returned East, Familia had taken over routinely scaring and scarring Mets fans with late inning hijinks.
He saved 94 games in 2015 and 2016, earned an All-Star appearance and never was that good again. In fact, those two seasons make up over 75% of his career saves and he hasn’t been below his career 3.50 ERA since 2018. Relievers and their success rate vary just like the team with the highest payroll has for the past quarter-century.
In 1998, Baltimore had the highest team payroll at $71 million. The Yankees flew past that number a year later and by 2004, their payroll of $182 million was more than $50 million dollars more than Boston ($125 million) and double that of Atlanta ($88 million) and Los Angeles ($89 million). The Braves’ payroll stayed below $90 million until 2014, but that’s because Hollywood had changed the script like Moby Dick. In 2013, the Dodgers had the highest payroll at $235 million. After a decade and a pandemic; that same ‘highest payroll’ moniker meant $358 for Cohen & the Mets. But looking back; it seems the song and the verbiage surrounding the payroll has remained the same.
Money has not proven to solve problems or lead to a celebration day, but it should get a team into the postseason and assure that every pundit is required to mention the millions spent in every article, column or discussion about the team. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic recently wrote about how Steve Cohen’s plan from jump was to follow the Dodgers’ model.
“Spend heavily in the early years, while improving the farm system to build a more cost-efficient contender long-term.”
It’s the same model done before and before that and before that as well. So why is everyone acting like Uncle Stevie is the only billionaire in the room? Or has the passage of time left us dazed and confused about recent history?
When Guggenheim Baseball Management took over the Dodgers in 2013, they started with a spending spree by pursuing South Korean import Hyun Jin Ryu and then 29-year old free agent Zach Grenkie, three years removed from a Cy Young in Kansas City. A Bleacher Report article said “the new owners have continuously poured money into their new acquisition,” but thought the team should pass on signing Grenkie and quoted SI.com’s Jay Jaffe that “the team doesn't necessarily have a cap, meaning they are likely willing to go to whatever lengths needed.”
Soon after, Grenkie agreed to a then-record-setting 6-year, $147 million; TrueBlueLA continued to disagree with the actions taken to improve the team. “For a team with a record payroll, there seems to be an awful lot of question marks.”
Sound familiar?
The Bleacher Report article finishes with these words, ones that could easily apply to the current incarnation of Orange and Blue - “The Dodgers have announced the return of one of baseball’s signature franchises with the new ownership and their willingness to seemingly spend without limits. Without a World Series appearance since 1988, there’s mounting pressure to field a winner.”
The Mets hosted the Fall Classic in 2015, but there’s mounting pressure from everyone outside the organization to live up to Uncle Stevie’s comment made soon after completing the team's purchase. A comment that has been reshaped like rock and roll to fit the moment, but what Cohen actually said was,
"If we don't win [a World Series] in the next three to five years, I'd consider that slightly disappointing."
Those last two words have morphed into the same decree made constantly by Serpentor - This I command! Created from the DNA of the greatest leaders in history, the snake-named animated villain from the comic/cartoon G.I. Joe sat on a throne with the emblem of Cobra loud and proud. His character was a boost for an already successful series amongst teenage boys like me, but unnecessary since we were going to watch anyway. With no quarter for the arcade at Jerry’s Pizza, we would watch Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and have a whole lotta love for DuckTales (a woo hoo).
That brief look into late 20th century childhood subverts the main subject at hand - why remarks from someone completing a childhood fantasy are held like a decree from a fictional emperor? What else is the owner of a recently purchased team supposed to say - Here’s hoping we soon finish second? It’s as silly as building a stairway to heaven, and that’s the truth.
Upcoming Series: New York Mets at Oakland Athletics
Friday, April 14 - 9:40 pm
Kodai Senga (2-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. James Kaprielian (0-1, 11.17 ERA)
Saturday, April 15 - 4:07 pm
Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 11.42 ERA) vs. Shintaro Fujinami (0-2, 17.55 ERA)
Sunday, April 16 - 4:07 pm
Max Scherzer (2-1, 4.41 ERA) vs. JP Sears (0-1, 5.59 ERA)
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